A team of researchers working on the BICEP2 experiment has announced the first direct evidence of cosmic inflation, a momentous experimental result that supports and gives new details on the Big Bang Theory of the Universe. Their data also represent the first images of gravitational waves, ripples in space-time that have been described as the "first tremors of the Big Bang." Finally, the observations confirm a deep connection between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

SLAC and Stanford scientists, many from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), are at the center of these exciting new results and held a special colloquium to celebrate on Wednesday, March 19 on the SLAC campus.